ok so i left the car running for about 20 mins or so and it was about 85 degrees outside. i come back out and it showed that it heated up jussssssst a little bit more than normal right. about 5 miles of driving and theres steam coming up from under the hood and the temp gauge is movin farther and farther to the right. i pull over and the damn antifreeze is bubbling! pulled off, let it sit for a about 2 hours, i go to eat and come back, and coming from under the front of the 8 was antifreeze like a leaking faucet was opened up. i put sum in started the engine everything was fine, put it drive, 40 feet and it started heating up again! mazda came and took it last night to a dealer. wat da heck could b wrong wit da car? and yes all the fluids were fine, i check the oil every fill up and everything and add as needed

First of all, why you left your car idle for 20 minutes ? You not only damage ur car, you damaged the environment as well

Now your car obviously have a problem before this incident. 85 deg aint hot and your car just overheats. but we need more information from you than *OMFG MY CAR OVER HEATS HELP*

For example, Year, Trim, What kind of fluids you have been using. Have you ever changed ur coolant, was everything sercure. etc

One more thing, you knew that your car overheated, coolant came out, but what you did was just sit back inside and drive it off when the coolant is low ? you just asked for another overheat.

its an 05 AT GT. and it was more like 17 18 mins or so if that counts for it. the dealership just told me that water got on the fuses and it burnt out the cooling fan. oh and i never changed the coolant or anything yet, i check it at fill up and everything seemed normal. i mean it only has 11,300 on it now.

hmm, that's definitely not normal.
You haven't relocated your license plate have you? I saw an 8 recently move his a little lower and it caused major airflow issues...aka...it overheated.

was there a leak somewhere underneath the car? could you have been losing fluid since you last checked it and that is why it overheated?

i have no idea man. i havn't moved the plate or anything. no mods on the car period. no interior no exterior. it doesn't even have the body kit on it yet man. when it heated up, i went and parked on the side. all this antifreeze came out of the bottom man, it was crazy and now they are giving me bull about water was being introduced to the engine compartment and its not their fault. this is bs man, hes saying 740 bucks to fix it

anyone got any ideas on how i can get c/s to fix this ish. my friend is a mechanic, knows diddly about rotaries, but told me if water got into the engine compart it would screw up a lot more than just a fuse relay and cooling fan. and there would be problems with the engine too. any thoughts?

pie,

beers :beer:

water in the engine won't damage the engine a whole lot. Rotaries get hot enough that it'll just turn to steam and clean out the carbon build up. (under the right circumstances of course)

water shouldn't be getting into the fuse box anyways so I don't see how this isn't covered under warranty.
Try speaking with the Service Manager in a calm, collected, and reasonable manner.

I agree with nycgps you had a problem before the long idle.

I am guilty of leting my car idle while eatting lunch in my car with the AC blowing of course. Hell sometimes I even doze off.:Eyecrazy: But I do redline it a few times on the way home to burn out any carbon build up!:)

i ever left my car idle for 45mins (got distracted on soccer worldcup)
coolant didnt bubbled up....but my high speed fan relay got burnt...high speed fan didnt run...i replaced the relay n everythins fine...but eventually my water pump failed ...

damage = fan relay (less than $20) + water pump ($90) + service charge ($20)

Has the car ever gotten hot before this? You say it was only 85 degree's that day.
I would tell the dealer that the car overheated for no reason. If they don't wan't to take care of it then take it to another dealership.
I have an '05 AT that has ben overheatiing through 4 engines and 2 radiators.
I would consider calling Mazda Customer service and mention what the dealer said.

Post #3 already explains the reason - but that would have been my first guess too - it just sounds like your radiator fan(s) didn't turn on, so the car overheated.

If you have to shell out cash for new fans, research some aftermarket ones that push higher CFM.

^What? So "water got on the fuses and it burnt out the cooling fan" , OK but how did water get on there? and why would it bur out the fan? not just the fuses?
Thanks

thnx a lot for the info btw guys. last time I washed the car was friday so I'm guessing if this problem was in fact my fault, it woulda shown up either before or during my 150 mile trip to DC. and when I got to dc n parked the car, the fan was on so everything was fine. but I called customer service and the guy said he was gonna get the district manager to look at it and decide whether its covered under warranty or not. so far, the 8 is still in silver spring waitin for the manager who should b coming today. wat else should I keep in mind when customer service calls me? if they don't fix this ish man ima just sell the car. its bs to have a warranty n at the first sign of trouble, they don't cover it. gives a shitty name to the company.

it has never heated up with me yet. I've put about 2k miles on it and no overheating issuses. the guy is saying the engine looks clean like sumone cleaned it. I swea to god I would never do sumtin that stupid.

Selling the car if they don't cover $50 in parts seems a little absurd.

Must not like the car.

I love the carm don't get me wrong. but when u buy a car, u also buy the service. and so far, service isn't up to par with the amount of money I spent on it.

I love the carm don't get me wrong. but when u buy a car, u also buy the service. and so far, service isn't up to par with the amount of money I spent on it.

What I'm saying is; If you dont like that dealers rule or principle for judgment, go to one that you will like. Don't take it out on the car. Its the dealers service that your not happy with.

When I first got my car the battery was no good. This is not by default. But they replaced it. After all I had the car for about a week or so. Come 3 years later and I had to buy a new one. They where not going to just give me a new one down the road. Then I had my engine replaced. They installed, for free a 2nd oil cooler.
Where someone on here is getting quotes for parts and labor.

Use your instance on judging how they treat you and your car.

I feel you. the dealership that the 8 got towed to sux balls, butnow its up to the manager to see whether they are going to cover it or not. I mean, I used to work for honda n had n s2k before. it was like a bike on four wheels man, loved it, but I see the 8 as having more "soul" u catch my drift? I always loved honda but I've wanted an 8 for a while now. even though it isn't everything I wanted (ie 6 sp, nav, etc etc.) the car is wonderful. just dont feel like going through this headache again with bitching to get work done on the car. but o well. mayb I'm just thinkin for the worse. mayb the manager will b like hey go ahead n fix it :-P

I work in the service industry and everyone wants something for free. So if he tells you, you have to pay! try and meet him 1/2 way and see what he can do for you.
Good luck!

thnx bro. mayb ill look at sum after market stuff too. mayb sumtin wit better cooling? neways, hopefully it'll take care of itself. thnx a lot guys.

It wont take car of itself. Its like child. Look at all the new AT 8's I think they have 2 oil coolers up front, 1 on each side. Ask if they can install one to help keep the car cool. Tell them Rotarys run hot and you dont want to come back asking for a new engine due to heat.
;)

ahahaha u wanna know something hilarious. the dealer just called and told me the regional manager for mazda or watever says that mazda is not going to cover it and that there may be more SIGNIFICANT damage done to the engine. they said that if the engine goes bad because of this issue, they are not going to cover it. So basically I can't get anything done to this engine now because they are going to find some way to point it back to this situation. well, I just got off the phone with customer service and the gy said he's going to see wat he can do. I'm prayin for the best man. this really erks me. I coulda got one with 20k more miles on it AND it was a stick for about 3 grand cheaper! either way, I'm screwed outta warranty now!

oh n one more thing



swoope, where's da damn pie?!

Tell them, the dealer that you want what exactly failed and why it failed in writing. I do not understand how the electrical system can fail in such a manner.
As far as I'm concerned this is a warranty issue.
Tell them to figure out why your car overheated in the first place.
What if you were stuck in traffic and couldn't move and the car overheated? "Oh sorry sir that's not covered under warranty". Also how would water get into your fuses? Bad design? No sealing on the cover? What happens when you drive in the rain?

Read this,,, http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=122148

that's exactly what I said to them. ok update on the situation. got aall back from customer service. seems like there was a mix up and "no water was found on the fuse box but because the engine was so clean at 11k miles, that was evidence enough that it had been cleaned. because of the mix up, mazda will fix the necessary parts free of charge under warranty and my warranty is still intact. sorry for the delay blah blah blah" yayyyy so after three days of terror, the customer wins again ;-P

Clean engine bay can get warranty service ?

Wow

Listen up boys and girls, you know what to do !

ahaha they said it looked reaaaaally good for a car with 11k on it. so it looking clean made them think water got under there. but because NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE WAS FOUND they couldn't do a damn thing. and because the mechanic spoke from thought rather than wat he saw, it caused this huge mix up. so bitch out customer service in a calm but stern voice and u get wat u need :-P

plus I didn't clean the engine, neither did the dealer I got it from, and I never got an undercarraige or under body wash from the car wash so the only way possible would have been from rain, and that's a design flaw. besides, who the hell leaves an open circuit underneath the car like that? I'm not in south africa with 3 or 4 foot floods, this is the east coast damn it! if anyone here works for mazda and sees this, COVER ALL THE OPEN CIRCUITS UNDER UR CARS! or atleast put a warning in the manual, sheesh ;-)

plus I didn't clean the engine, neither did the dealer I got it from, and I never got an undercarraige or under body wash from the car wash so the only way possible would have been from rain, and that's a design flaw. besides, who the hell leaves an open circuit underneath the car like that? I'm not in south africa with 3 or 4 foot floods, this is the east coast damn it! if anyone here works for mazda and sees this, COVER ALL THE OPEN CIRCUITS UNDER UR CARS! or atleast put a warning in the manual, sheesh ;-)

We don't need a warning, because there is nothing exposed. There are rubber seals around the top of the hood. Some water can get in near the bottom if you spray it with a hose, but it doesn't get on anything important. Also the fuses are in a tray that water would have to travel up vertically almost 2 inches to get into.

We also have members who pressure wash their engine bays on a regular basis who have no issue.

Additionally, there's people with vented hoods that are directly exposed, and they're not reporting this either.

oh n one more thing



swoope, where's da damn pie?!

you are the pie.

gfl my friend..

beers :beer:

Well I'm glad that they woke up.

We don't need a warning, because there is nothing exposed. There are rubber seals around the top of the hood. Some water can get in near the bottom if you spray it with a hose, but it doesn't get on anything important. Also the fuses are in a tray that water would have to travel up vertically almost 2 inches to get into.

We also have members who pressure wash their engine bays on a regular basis who have no issue.

Additionally, there's people with vented hoods that are directly exposed, and they're not reporting this either.

ok so how about u explain that to mazda? or mayb the dealer was just BSing?

This thread is not going well.:icon_no2:

I would run away from that dealership right now. They seem to be grasping at straws for a reason to blame you for problems, which is never a good sign. Every automaker knows that customers will occasionally pressure wash the engine and so will test to make sure that some water in the engine bay will not be a problem. Even worse, because the engine bay was so clean that must have been evidence that you washed it? What if you're really anal and just decided to wipe the engine bay down with a damp towel on a stick? If you haven't already called MNAO about the behavior of this dealership, I'd do it now.

already done my friend. parts are coming in tomorrow morning/afternoon so my 8 will b back on the street by friday or monday. mnao doesn't like that dealership just as much I do, they said they get complaints not just from 8 owners but for all the models. I think a review on their service department is coming up in the near future.

My advice. After this is over find a new dealership. There are good ones out there. Just don't go back to them. You'll get nothing but problems every time.

My advice. After this is over find a new dealership. There are good ones out there. Just don't go back to them. You'll get nothing but problems every time.

o this was just my luck. it got towed there at around 9ish. im NEVER going back there for help. just i didn't hae a choice and i knew nothing about the dealers in that area ya kno wat i mean

Strange, it never occurred to anybody that the steam bath the over-boil made under the hood would really, really clean your engine bay? Duh ! Trust me, it will, no need to duplicate ;o)

True story - your car overheated because the fan motor died. Idling for so long made the problem evident, but the idling is not the cause of the fan dismiss. The dieing fan took out the fuse also. They need to get a new fan assembly for you, hence the $700 bill.

Question - Why did the fan die? The only reason I'm aware is the rubber grommet(s) the airbox sits on got pushed into the fan blade, causing it to get stuck and burn the motor or cause the separation of the blades from the motor shaft. The spike in current due to extra resistance that burns the motor burns the fuse too. Those "moving" grommets are a design issue - I manually check it being in place everytime I remove the airbox (I removed the one on the left because it is not needed and it is harder to check as well). The other one is one I retrieved from the engine cover (removed the cover to make space for the MS strut bar). The size is the same, but it has a slightly diff inside shape that makes it easier to keep in place.
For you to investigate if you want to avoid the same incident (you know they will not change it free again for you, right? ;o) ) - was the blade on the motor? was the motor damaged or just burned? do you have the 2 bottom rubber grommets for the airbox?